Voter intimidation charges investigated in Cicero

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Cook County Clerk David Orr is looking into charges of voter intimidation in west suburban Cicero.

The central allegation is that town workers, loyal to current town president Larry Dominick, have been making the rounds, in marked municipal vehicles, dispensing questionable help to Latino voters, who make up about 87% of the local population.

Orr has gone so far as to reach out in writing to the Dominick campaign saying, “This could easily be construed as an attempt at voter intimidation. We could not have imagined that your clients would improperly, and possibly illegally, employ town resources and employees to advance their campaigns.”

The town president’s campaign responded with a letter of its own two weeks ago expressing its concerns then about voter fraud and an unusually high number of absentee ballots.

The campaign of opponent Juan Ochoa sees that as a blatant attempt to get political and legal cover.

Orr stops short of calling the activity illegal but he does say his office, and the office of the state’s attorney, will be closely watching the primary which is one week from tomorrow.